True Wealth: How and Why Millions of Americans Are Creating a Time-Rich,Ecologically Light,Small-Scale, High-Satisfaction Economy

Market work generates income, which is used to buy food, products, energy, and mobility.

people adapt to higher incomes by raising their expectations.

self-provisioning and small businesses.

In 1969 the fraction of

A simple cessation of growth is a disaster, as unemployment and poverty soar, and income per person falls.

Environmental protection is thought of less in terms of making the economy more productive than of leading us to different choices. If we want more forests, we make do with less furniture.

moderate consumption of items that have traditionally been luxuries.

Some consumer theorists argue that the emergence of a symbolically driven economy implies that when people crave images and social meaning, the materiality of goods becomes unimportant, which in turn can produce dematerialization. The idea is that we consume images, rather than material products.

A core principle of plenitude—diversifying out of the BAU economy—is